TN boys, Karnataka girls lift sub-junior TT trophies

CHANDIGARH: Tamil Nadu defeated Telangana in the final to win the sub-junior boys' trophy at the 80th Cadet and Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships here on Thursday.

The 3-0 verdict in favour of Tamil Nadu in the final must have come as a disappointment for Telangana, but the boys from the new state deserved all the appreciation for edging out overwhelming title contenders Delhi 3-2 in the semi-finals earlier.

With Preyesh Raj Suresh and Vishwa Deenadayalan in their ranks, Tamil Nadu had the experience and guile. So, it was no surprise that they claimed the trophy.

However, what endeared Telangana was the way they fought the semifinals, especially the cool Kesavan, who literally carried the team into the final against an experienced line-up of Delhi, comprising Payas Jain and Aadarsh Om Chetri, the top-ranked individuals.

Kesavan played his role to perfection, first levelling the score after Payas had put Delhi ahead. But Delhi went 2-1 up after the doubles win putting Telangana under pressure once again.

Karthik showed no sign of nerves as he beat Aadarsh to give a new lease of life which Kesavan utilized well against Payas. The Telangana boy was 0-1 in the decider but stroked his way to dismantle the Delhi boy to give his team a rare opportunity in the final. But, unfortunately, Tamil Nadu proved too strong for them in the title-round.

However, Tamil Nadu sub-junior girls were not lucky as Karnataka won 3-2 in a thrilling final to claim their title. In the final, the pendulum of fortune swung from one extreme to another, taking the issue to the fifth rubber after Tamil Nadu's Kavyashree Baskar had beaten Anargaya Manjunath 3-2 to level the score 2-2.

Yashaswini Ghorpade, who lost her second singles to Kavyashree 2-3, did well to come back against Shreya Shivakumar to win 3-1, giving the crown to Karnataka. The one-dimensional player who hardly played a forehand shot, was lacking both in imagination and strategy.

In her first singles, she wilted under pressure from Kavyashree, who was very passive in her approach, and failed to seize the initiative. But she came into her own after losing the first game to beat Shreya who could not handle as well as Kavyashree did against Anargaya in the fourth rubber.

West Bengal boys and girls were clear winners in the Cadet section as they beat Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra B by the same margin of 3-0 to claim the team championships.